Sri Lanka: The politics of the Frontline Socialist Party -- interview with Premakumar Gunaratnam

August 8, 2012 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/Green Left Weekly -- Premakumar Gunaratnam,
an ethnic Tamil from Sri Lanka, who now has Australian citizenship,
returned to his home country in September 2011 to help organise the
launch of a new left party, the Frontline Socialist Party (FLSP), a major breakaway from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
(JVP, People’s Liberation Front). He had been a JVP activist for
three decades and a member of its underground political bureau
since 1994. In an extensive
interview with Peter Boyle for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal and Green Left Weekly, Gunaratnam reported how he was abducted by a group of
armed men between 4 am and 5 am on April 7, just two days before the scheduled
launch of the new party.

He spotted 15-20 armed
men in civilian clothes from a window on the first floor of the
building he was staying in and he tried to escape, unsuccessfully. “They kept me in my
room for between 15 to 20 minutes and tortured me, including sexual
torture. Then they blindfolded me, took me downstairs and forced me
into a van.”

Gunaratnam was driven for 30-45
minutes to another place, where the torture continued in what seemed
to be a small office. He remained blindfolded for the next 72 hours,
except for a few minutes while his photograph was taken by a man
wearing a balaclava.

“I saw then, in those
few minutes, that it was an office with desks and computers. They were abusing
and humiliating me and asking about my political work, the new party,
where I had been in the previous seven months and who I was working
with. They asked me about
the accusations that I had LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] connections – a story that had been
spread by the government and the media it controlled – but it
seemed to me that they did not believe this themselves.

“From the way they
treated me in the first eight hours I had the feeling that they were
going to kill me. I was handcuffed and my feet were tied together. I
was on the floors and they kept kicking me. They didn't give me
any food or water in that time. It was not a real
interrogation, which I had previously experienced in 1989-1990 when I
was in military custody. This time they were just torturing me.”

Gunaratnam recognised
the behaviour of his abductors, particularly in relation to each other,
as that of members of the armed forces or the police. Occasionally he
overheard phone calls they made to their superiors about what to do
with him.

Another leading FLSP
activist, Ms Dimuthu Attygalle, had also been abducted just the night
before Gunaratnam was picked up. However, he was not aware of this at
the time of his abduction. During the first few
hours of his detention, Gunaratnam heard the voice of a woman who was
being interrogated in the same place, a voice he later recognised as
that of Attygalle. Later that night, Gunaratnam was moved to a
different location.

There was such a big
public outcry over these abductions in Sri Lanka and in other
countries, including in Australia, that the Sri Lankan government came
under a lot of pressure. After three days both FLSP leaders were
released by their abductors. Two other leading FLSP activists, who
were abducted in Jaffna on December 9, 2011, Lalith Weeraraj and
Kugan Muruganandan, remain "disappeared".

Gunaratnam was taken to
the police by his abductors to the police, who seemed to be expecting
him, and later he was deported to Australia.

* * *

Peter Boyle: What was the
political basis of your break from the JVP?

Premakumar Gunaratnam: Number one was class
collaboration. The JVP had become part of the government coalition in
2004 and had continued this class collaboration since then. Finally,
the JVP supported the ultra-rightist former army commander General
Sarath Fonseka in the 2010 presidential elections.

Since 2001 there has
been an internal debate unfolding in the JVP. Over the last decade
there was a huge debate in the party about class collaboration.

In 2010 there was a
convention and 95% of the members had come to the conclusion that
they would not fall behind that line [of class collaboration] again.
We had a self-criticism and said that this class collaboration was
wrong.

At the same time we had
a self-criticism to some extent of our nationalistic policies in
terms of the national question in Sri Lanka. So that was the second
issue.

But what happened is
that the people who controlled the JVP's registered political party
used their positions to work against the will of the party members
expressed at the 2010 convention. This took place between August
2010 and September 2011. So last year the conflict came to a climax
when these people conspired against some political bureau and central committee members. They conspired to remove four members from the political bureau, including Comrade Dimuthu and Comrade Jayakoda and
another two comrades, who were not in the registered party but in the
in the political bureau.

What exactly is the
FLSP's position on the national question in Sri Lanka? Doe the new
party recognise the Tamil minority as an oppressed nationality with
the rights of national self-determination?

Unlike the JVP, we in
the FLSP believe that there is national oppression of the Tamil
people and the Muslim people. But in the present circumstances in Sri
Lanka we do not believe accepting self-determination or devolution of
power for the Tamil majority areas will help to solve the national
question. On the contrary, it will worsen the situation. At the same
time we believe that there is a national oppression against the
minority communities.

We believe a solution
should be based on democracy and equality but it is not going to be a
reality under the present neoliberal capitalism. And also a solution
should be able to unite the different national communities but not to
divide them. Division of nationalities means division of oppressed
classes. It doesn't strengthen the class struggle but courses further
weakening.

We do not encourage the
drawing of vertical national lines but work towards uniting proletarians
of different national communities for the sake of advancing the class
struggle.

Imperialist powers,
including India, preach and encourage so-called devolution of power
and self-determination according to their political agenda in the
region. But at the same time we oppose the unitary state concept, as
it further widens the differences between different national
communities. Both unitary and federal state structures represent the
same neoliberal capitalism at present.

We should practice a
socialist program instead a social-democratic program. In Sri Lanka
there are number of unfinished democratic revolutionary objectives,
including the national question, which has to be accomplished under
socialism. The FLSP believes that an effective and practical political
program should be implemented to unite the working class and the
peasants among different national communities. The "Movement for
Equal Rights" is our first move towards this direction.

If a capitalist
government in Sri Lanka implements some form of devolution of power
to the [Tamil majority] north and east would the FLSP oppose it?

Devolution of power is
a slogan imposed by India. We don't want to divide the country into
ethnic territories. We won't oppose any form of democratic reform.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the government are pushing
power devolution but we are going to explain to the Tamil, Muslim and
Sinhala people that this is not a solution for the national question.

What is the FLSP's
attitude to the government's final military solution to the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebellion? Do you see it as a
national victory?

No,
no, it is totally wrong and it is not a national victory. Because of
this war the armed forces have been strengthened and these armed
forces are now attacking the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim working class.
So it is quite clear this is not a national victory.

This
does not mean that we accept the policies of the LTTE or its
methods of struggle in the past. Both the government and the LTTE
acted as reactionary forces against the working class.

We
have made a self-criticism of the JVP's role in strengthening the
government, this right-wing regime and the capitalist state itself
over the last decade. Before this decade the ruling class in Sri
Lanka was in crisis. It couldn't form stable governments. They
collapsed in 2001 and 2004 but with the JVP's support it was
strengthened, along with its huge military apparatus.

What is the position
of the FLSP on the demand for the release of political prisoners,
most of whom are detained because the government alleges they
supported the LTTE?

Our
position is quite clear. The government should release all political
prisoners regardless of their political views. We are holding
protests around this demand.

Recently
the regime released General Fonseka because it suits the regime's
political agenda and not for any democratic principle. There are
still hundreds of thousands of political prisoners and they should be
released.

While
the regime has lifted emergency rule but undemocratic laws, like the
Ant-Terrorism Act, are still in force. This law needs to be repealed.

There are reports
that under cover of military occupation in the northern and eastern
provinces, the lands of Tamil people have been stolen and given to
people in or linked to the military. Is this true?

Yes,
I believe it is true. First, the military occupied the lands
illegally and by force and are implementing what they call a
“military plan”. Under this military plan they can use any land
in whatever way they want. They are taking the land from their
rightful owners and leasing them to Indian multi-millionaires and to
Chinese companies.

What is the FLSP's
attitudes to the calls for government and military leaders to be
brought up to account for war crimes and atrocities carried out
during the war against the LTTE?

The
Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people were all affected by this war. There
were atrocities by government forces and by the LTTE as well. I don't
see that a war crimes investigation imposed by the US or other
imperialist forces will advance democracy in Sri Lanka. The Mahinda Rajapakse
regime is trying its best to act according to the wishes of the US
government. The foreign minister of Sri lanka met with US Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton and since the pressure for a war crimes
tribunal from the US has eased.

The
US was only using the threat of war crimes tribunal to pressure the
Sri Lankan government into acting according to their agenda in the
region. That's our view.

If
someone wants to have a real investigation into war crimes it needs
to investigate all the war crimes. It is very clear that towards the
end of the war, thousands of innocent people were killed by the
government forces. But it is also true that over the previous two
decades thousands of innocent people were killed by both the
government and the LTTE. So a real investigation must look at all the
war crimes.

What is the state of
the ruling class in Sri Lanka today?

The
governments of Sri Lanka have followed neoliberal policies since
1977 at the behest of the ruling class. It is destroying humanity and
destroying our society. But it is not only an economic program it is
also an ideology that is infecting the masses and so we have to fight
this as well.

Neoliberalism
is now inside people's minds. You can see this with what has happened
to the trade unions in Sri Lanka. When we were with the JVP we led
the biggest trade union movements. But we had time-tabled fights for
wages and conditions every year in November and then the struggle
would stop and the these fights were easily absorbed by the system.

We
needed to find a way to turn it, instead, into a fight against the
system but we failed to do this. Finally we ended up helping
strengthen the capitalist state.

The high points of
the JVP were marked by strong support from youth, particularly in the
south. What is the current state of the youth movement and how are
young people responding to the formation of the new party?

Unfortunately,
the JVP has not been able to mobilise the youth over the last decade.
We couldn't understand neoliberalism and in particular how it was
affecting the youth. So our tactics to mobilise the youth did not
work. Now, in the FLSP, we are trying to understand the situation.

We
think that while the working class is the vanguard, the youth are the
most energetic and creative section. But now we see that youth are
alienated from politics. Actually not only the youth but all the
people are alienated from politics so we need to find ways to
politicise them. This is our biggest challenge.

What is the balance
of support between the JVP and the FLSP in the representatives
parliamentarians and provincial councils?

The
JVP fell into pragmatism and relied mainly on elections to mobilise
its supporters. Nevertheless the JVP's electoral popularity has been
declining over the last few years. In 2004 we had 41 seats in the
parliament. In the 2010 election we only got four seats but we did
not contest in our own name but as part of the Democratic National
Alliance (with General Fonseka) so there are no more JVP
parliamentarians. Three of the Democratic National
Alliance parliamentarians support the JVP
now and one supports the FLSP. There are a few provincial councillors
elected as JVP and they are evenly divided between the JVP and the
FLSP.

The
majority of the JVP's organisers and full-timers split off and have
joined the FLSP. This is in the district organisations, the student,
youth and women's sectors – especially in the youth sector. We had
some problems in the trade union section and we are going to form a
new trade union federation.

We
are also going to introduce some new organisational structures as
well. We are creating new structures, alongside existing trade
unions, to organise the workers' sector. In the hospitals, for instance,
we are forming common unions for doctors, nurses and attendants where
traditionally each had their own union. We will also organise with
broader than industrial organisations that take up not only the
workplace issues of the workers but also their broader concerns.

Comments

"Unlike the JVP, we in the FLSP believe that there is national oppression of the Tamil people and the Muslim people. But in the present circumstances in Sri Lanka we do not believe accepting self-determination or devolution of power for the Tamil majority areas will help to solve the national question. On the contrary, it will worsen the situation. At the same time we believe that there is a national oppression against the minority Communities."

This guy is really playing with words in order to hide chauvinistic policy of his old and new Parties. Though He is saying that their new stand is different from the policy of their erstwhile comrades in JVP, that is not true.
For Tamils Nothing can be worst than what happened in 2009.Tamils Have already experiencing worst horrible situation in their History. Is this Sinhalised Tamil Guy Kumar suggesting that if there is any kind of power divolution might worsten the Sitaution Of Tamils.?
in 2009 1/3 of the Tamil population in Vanni were killed by the Sri lankan government forces. How many people died by hunger, starvation, and without treatments because of food and medicine embargo impemented by the GoSL. In 2009 Tamils in Mullivaikkal sufferings one cant even imagine.
This Kumar Gunarathnam has helped to GoSL to massacre Tamils when he was with JVP.Now is trying to paint him self as a Socialist.
It is true that acception of Rights to self determination fot Tamils or any kind of power divolution might worst the situation of FLSP which is trying Compromise with Sinhala chauvinist vote base while trying to hoodwink the left and Tamil people with their crocodile tears.
hey Kumar, Tamils dont ask self determination from you or your party. if you say you cant accept right to self determination that means you wanted to keep Tamils forcefully in the border of Sri Lankan State. While you are unable live within Sri Lankan Boarders how can you say Tamils Should live there.?

Agree Gunaratnam is clearly being disingenuous and lamely so when he claims that whilst there is national oppression of Tamil and Muslim people, self determination is not the solution in the present circumstances. In doing so he chooses to forget that the Tamil people of the north and east have consistently, since independence, mandated their democratically elected representatives with the task of seeking self determination.

He also forgets Sri Lanka is a middle income country with an fast aging population whose social drivers have changed. The working class is much wider and deeper and finely layered than he conceives it - almost everyone is a part except the miniscule super rich.

By falling back slogans instead of a reasoned critique G does a great disservice to his cause dubious as that may be - no better than the platitudes of the capitalist complex. What a disappointment!!

I support the right of Tamils to self-determination, and therefore disagree with the FLSP's view of the national question.

However I think is premature to pass judgement on the FLSP. They say they will build a movement in the south to demand an end to military rule in the north, to return land currently occupied by military bases to its Tamil owners, to free political prisoners, to end restrictions of Tamil fisher people, etc.

If they actually do this, it will be a step forward. We should judge them by their actions on these issues (while still criticising their confused statements on self-determination).